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PRE - HISTORY
10,000 - 3000 BC

DATES

E V E N T

10,000 - 8000 BC

"The earliest known human society that we see in process of developing an economy based first on the systematic gathering of wild cereals and then on their artificial production was to be found in Palestine, Transjordan, and Lebanon between about 10,000 and 8000 B.C. Dubbed by prehistorians 'Natufian' after the type site just north of Jerusalem, this culture was the product of a human type of slight build with long heads (dolichocephalic) that can confidently be classified as Homo sapiens." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times p. 6, Princeton University Press, 1992

8000 - 6000 BC

"For the period about 8,000 to 6,000 B.C., the so-called Prepottery Neolithic, the culture of Palestine and Syria shows a progressive development of farming techniques, including the domestication of animals, and sedentarization in permanent towns." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times p. 11, Princeton University Press, 1992

6000 - 4000 BC

"The three principal Pottery Neolithic cultures known to us in the Holy Land-Yarmukian, Coastal and Jerichoan-were contemporary to some degree. The Yarmukian culture, in particular, settled down in the central Jordan Valley, the Coastal in the coastal plain and the Jezreel Valley, and the Jerichoan in the lower Jordan Valley and other southern parts. All three were well-advanced in the making of pottery on their first arrival, some time in the sixth millennium." Emmanuel Anati, "The Prehistory of the Holy Land (until 3200 B.C.," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 32, The Continuum Publishing Group, 2001

4000 - 3000 BC

"Towards the end of the fifth millennium, new regions in the south and the mountain areas were peopled...Some hamlets grew into real villages, and material culture in is several aspects -- pottery, flint implements, bone tools, art and so on -- underwent gradual changes. The transition from Neolithic to Chalcolithic is not abrupt; the division was made by archaeologists on the basis of differences in material culture.

It is not yet clear how the Chalcolithic cultures came to an end. Late in the fourth millennium, important northern cultural influences penetrated the holy Land, and a new culture was born. But the old traditions did not perish overnight, and co-existed with the new ones in the earliest levels of the Bronze Age." Emmanuel Anati, "The Prehistory of the Holy Land (until 3200 B.C.," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 32, 34, The Continuum Publishing Group, 2001

"It was the destiny of the Holy Land, situated at the south-west end of the Fertile Crescent, to be a bridge between the two cradles of civilization, Mesopotamia (Babylonia-Assyria) and Egypt, at is extremities. It lay astride the principal land routes between the great powers of antiquity, with all the advantages and disadvantages that this involved. It was to be expected that it would be coveted by both." Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 36, The Continuum Publishing Group, 2001

"Evidence of Egyptian involvement in the affairs of Palestine and Syria during the 1st and 2nd Dynasties [3080 - 2687 B.C.] is unmistakable. In the surviving fragments of annals from the reigns of the immediate successors of Menes [1st ruler of unified Egypt], one often encounters an entry such as 'smiting the Asiatics,' or 'first occasion of smiting the east,' as an identifying event by which to designate a year." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 33, Princeton University Press, 1992

2700 - 2200 BC

"The Egyptians could, and frequently did, resort to naked force in gaining their ends in Palestine...The few surviving texts from the Old Kingdom [3rd -6th Dynasties 2688 - 2191 B.C.] that deal with the subject do not equivocate. The most common verb used is 'to smite,' referring to mortal combat. The enemy are 'slaughtered,' 'put to flight,' or 'cowed,' and the survivors brought off to Egypt as prisoners." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 53-54, Princeton University Press, 1992

2200 - 2000 BC

"In place of the semi-industrialized society of Early Bronze III [2688 - 2191 B.C.], which could indulge in international trade, nought is left but rustic pastoralism in which stockbreeding looms large at the expense of agriculture...The increase of nonurban, transhumant economy in post-Early Bronze III Palestine could be put down in large measure to the depredations of the Egyptian armed forces." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 63-64, Princeton University Press, 1992

1950 - 1850 BC

"Following the impoverished Middle Bronze I [2200 - 1950 B.C.], with its sparse population of elusive transhumants, there comes the birth of a new cultural phase, which is not descended from Middle Bronze I. Middle Bronze IIA [1950 - 1750 B.C.] represents the introduction into the Levant of a culture with contacts with the north [Amorite states]. Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 94, Princeton University Press, 1992

"By the mid-nineteenth century Amorite communities were in the ascendancy...Hazor dominated southern Syria and northern Palestine from its optimum position in the Upper Jordan Valley...

The warlike tendencies of the Amorite successor states are clearly reflected in the town architecture of MB IIA and B. To accommodate an increase in population -- the population of Palestine in MB IIA [1950 - 1750 B.C.] has been estimated at 100,000, that of MB IIB [1750 - 1600 B.C.] at 140,000 -- cities were enlarged and fortifications introduced...

On gains the distinct impression that by the end of MBIIA [1750 B.C.] Palestine and southern Syria had been irrevocably drawn into the ambit of the warring Amorite states of the north and east, and hence obliged to adopt a more hostile stance toward Egypt." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 94-96, Princeton University Press, 1992

1650 - 1550 BC

"Around 1650 an Asiatic military leader and his group seized power at Avaris [Egypt]. This may have been the result of a peaceful infiltration that ended in a coup d'etat, or the result of a takeover by a newly arrived military group. This is the beginning of the Hyksos rule first over the [Egyptian] Delta and then extending south, making also Thebes a vassal to the ruler at Avaris." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 189, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"The degree of Hyksos control over the land whence they had emerged remains problematical. Design scarabs dubbed 'Hyksos' simply because they are ubiquitous in Egypt and Palestine during the period of the 15th Dynasty [1664 - 1555 B.C.] may or may not be proof of political rule: at most they attest to the presence of a sort of cultural penumbra." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 119, Princeton University Press, 1992

"Whether anything more than a sphere of interest should be postulated beyond the Sinai for the Hyksos dynasty is difficult to say at present…The Hazor regime [Amorites] would have maintained its powerful position through most, if not all, the Hyksos period…We can only assume Hazor's continued hegemony would have blocked Hyksos attempts to expand their control northward [into Palestine]." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 121, Princeton University Press, 1992

1550 - 1500 BC

"Unfortunately no cache of texts has been unearthed to date that could shed light on the Political history and demographic shifts of the second half of the sixteenth century, and one has the sinking feeling in approaching this period that a most significant page is missing in the record... The gap in our written sources is doubly maddening in view of the upheaval attested in the archaeological record. Nearly every major town in Palestine and southern Syria is found, upon excavation, to have undergone a violent destruction sometime after the close of Middle Bronze IIC [1600 - 1550 B.C.] -- that is, the cultural phase roughly contemporary with the last stage in the Hyksos occupation of Egypt." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 137-138, Princeton University Press, 1992

"The expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt marks the end of the Middle Bronze Age. With the emergence of the Mitanni kingdom as well as the growing power of the Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty, a new era began in the history of Syria-Palestine." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 217, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"Egypt's chief rival in the struggle for hegemony over Syria at this time was the country of the Mittanni, in north-west Mesopotamia. The contest between the two powers was only decided in 1490 B.C. when Thutmose III (1504 - 1452 B.C.) defeated a confederation of kings of 'Huru' (Canaan and Syria), allies of Mitanni, at Megiddo. The victory set the stage for Egypt's subjugation of the entire Fertile Crescent." Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)," The History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 44 The Continuum Publishing Group Inc. 2001

"The immediate aftermath of the Egyptian conquest involved the intentional demolition of Canaanite towns and the deportation of a sizable segment of the population. Thutmose III [1504 - 1452 B.C.] carried off in excess of 7,300, while his son Amenophis II [1454 - 1419 B.C.] uprooted by his own account 89,600." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 208, Princeton University Press, 1992

"Ever since the great deportations of Thutmose III and Amenophis II, the northern empire and Palestine especially had suffered a weakening brought on by under population. Not only did the 'apiru banditry now take advantage of the vacuum in the highlands, but nomads from Transjordan also began to move north into Galilee and Syria and west across the Negev to Gaza, Ashkelon, and the highway linking Egypt with Palestine." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 179, Princeton University Press, 1992

"The 'apiru and the nomads (Shasu) are the people that the Egyptians, according to the inscriptions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties, met in Palestine. These are therefore the ancestors of many of the 'tribes' of the central hill country that we later meet in the biblical narratives about the period of the so-called Judges." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 236, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

1320 - 1260 BC

"In the sixty-year period, from about 1320 to 1260 B.C., the Shasu are chronicled as continuing to foment trouble in their native habitat of the steppe, and as pressing westward through the Negeb toward major towns along the Via Maris. It is not, in my opinion, an unrelated phenomenon that a generation later under Merneptah [1237-1226] an entity called 'Israel' with all the character of a Shasu enclave makes its appearance probably in the Ephraimitic highlands." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 275, Princeton University Press, 1992

Late 13th Century BC

"No one can prove (or disprove, for that matter) that the tribal federation 'Israel' originated on Palestinian soil. No one can prove that the major components of that federation had always existed on Palestinian soil. All that is known for certain is that, some time during the fourth quarter of the thirteenth century B.C., Egypt knew of a group, or political entity, called 'Israel' and occupying part of the land of the land of Canaan; but whether the group had recently arrived or taken shape is not stated in our sources. That the Hebrew language is closely related to the West Semitic dialect (s) that we subsume under the catchall 'Canaanite' is a fact; but then, it is equally closely related to the dialects of Transjordan as well." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 266, Princeton University Press, 1992

1200 BC

"After 1200 B.C. when the Sea Peoples overwhelmed the coast, and 'Israel' is firmly attested, the Canaanites as a political force were dead. And so, effectually, was the Egyptian empire of the New Kingdom." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 280, Princeton University Press, 1992

"After the Sea Peoples stormed the Levant around 1200 B.C. a catastrophe which is still not clear in many of its details, all traditions were extinguished for a long time. For Palestine we are thrown back almost exclusively on the historical books of the Old Testament, which provide only incomplete information on the newly immigrated Israelite tribes and their more cultured opponents in the land." Wolfram von Soden, The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East, p. 55, William B. Eardmans Publishing Co, 1994

1200 - 1000 BC

"The Philistine menace put Israelite survival into constant jeopardy at the time of the judges. The Philistines were one of the 'Peoples of the Sea' which had invaded the Fertile Crescent from the north, along the coast of Anatolia, and descended through Syria and Canaan all the way to Egypt...In addition to them, a people called the Tjeker or Tjekel, but belonging to the same 'Peoples of the Sea', settled along the coast of Dor in the northern Sharon." Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 67, G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House Ltd., 2001

1000s BC

"Along the southern coast, from Gaza to Mount Carmel, enclaves of the Philistines and Teukrians (now partly Semitized) maintained a firm hold of the broad coastal plains and, as the Egyptians had done before them, exercised a tentative but preemptive influence over the inland mountains. In response to the Philistine presence, Israel and Judah in the uplands were moving toward the creation of a state." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 298, Princeton University Press, 1992

"A judicious reading of both the archaeological and the textual record militates in favor of the eleventh to the tenth centuries for the settlement and the early monarchic period…Extensive occupation of the region is not attested before the close of the second millennium or the early monarchic period." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 295-296, Princeton University Press, 1992

"The Hebrew-Philistine rivalry for the possession of the land provided the occasion for the creation of the Hebrew monarchy... Saul's anointment (c. 1020 B.C.) as the first king was tantamount to a challenge to Philistine suzerainty." Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 96, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

"With most of Transjordan and the central hills of Cisjordan [land west of the Jordan river] north of the Jebusite city state of Jerusalem under his control, Saul had created a territorial state that the greater Palestinian region had never seen before. Saul can therefore be regarded as the first state-builder in Palestine." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 449, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

1004 BC

"The real founder of the monarchy was David (c. 1004 - 960 B.C.)... David inaugurated a series of campaigns which lifted the Philistine yoke from Hebrew necks, brought Edom, Moab and Ammon under his rule and what is more amazing, netted him Aramaean Hollow Syria [Aram]... His conquest of Edom brought under his control the great trade route between Syria and Arabia." Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 187, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951

999 BC

In 999 B.C., Jerusalem, a mountain stronghold of the Jebusites is conquered and David relocates his capital there -- possibly to avoid internecine tribal squabbles based on city-state politics in the more established Judean cities, and because Jerusalem is more ideally situated geographically to rule over an extended kingdom. Meir Ben-Dov, Historical Atlas of Jerusalem, p. 44, Continuum Press, 2000

"Palestine was not a country that encouraged the creation of larger political unites... David's kingdom represents an exception, a parenthesis in the history of the ancient Near East. The achievements of David were possible because there was a power vacuum at this time. The Hittite kingdom went out of existence around 1200 B.C. Egypt's rule over Palestine ended sometime in the mid-twelfth century B.C. and was itself split into two kingdoms... Their 'successors' in Palestine, the Philistines, had filled the power gap for a short time, until David put an end to their political and economic hegemony... David's kingdom, was, however, short-lived. It dissolved naturally when Solomon died." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 487-488, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

923 BC

"Upon Solomon's death at about 923 B.C., the united monarchy split into a northern kingdom, Israel, based on ten tribes and having Shechem (near the modern village of al-Balatah) as its capitol [and later Samaria c. 880], and a southern one, Judah, based on the remaining two tribes and using Jerusalem as capital." Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 97, 99, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

"The little southern state [Judah] was more or less limited to the tribal portions of Judah, Simean and Benjamin, with some possessions in Edom in the east and along the coastal plain in the west. In the north there was the kingdom of Israel, with Shechem as its fist capital, larger than Judah both in population and in size. Encompassing the portions of a majority of the tribes and the most fertile parts of the country, including the Sharon, it retained Moab, and apparently Ammon as well, as vassal-states." Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 81, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc. 2001

"The two tiny kingdoms fell into the complex political and belligerent developments of the general area and became rivals, at times enemies. Repeated uprisings and mounting intrigues in both states contributed to their final undoing. Israel experienced nine dynastic changes, involving nineteen kings, in its two-century existence. The throne of Judah was occupied by twenty kings, but the southern kingdom out lived the northern by about a century and a third. The way was paved for their final destruction one by Assyria and the other by Neo-Babylonia." Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 97, 99, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

"The year 745 B.C. marks one of those major turning points in history the significance of which is often lost on layman and scholar alike…For it was in 745 that a civil war in Assyria unseated the royal family and catapulted a general named 'Pul' known to history as Tiglath-pileser III, to the throne of the empire. This usurper proved to be an organizational genius and a master strategist, worthy of comparison with Hannibal or Scipio. By relentless campaigning and indiscriminate use of mass deportation, he encompassed the destruction of Damascus and Israel and by 732 B.C." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 340-341, Princeton University Press, 1992

734 - 732 BC

"The goal of the Assyrian campaign to Syria-Palestine in 734 B.C. should be seen in the light of Assyria's intentions to control the commerce of the Mediterranean ports...With the reduction of the territory of Israel and the destruction of the Damascus kingdom in 733-732, Tiglath-pileser reached his goal of commercial control of Syria-Palestine." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 630-631, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"For Palestine the result of the Assyrian campaign in 734-732 B.C. was a greatly devastated country. Its population had been decimated not only through war casualties but also through deportations… Another result was that the Assyrian empire now reached down through the Galilee and the Jezreel and Beth-shan valleys to the Philistine coast in Palestine, and in Transjordan down to the border of Ammon. The map of greater Palestine had been drastically redrawn. Almost half of the greater Palestinian area was now part of the kingdom of Assyria. The other half was part of the Assyrian political system in that it consisted of several vassal states." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 665-666, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

724 - 722 BC

"The political situation was stable for almost a decade after 732 B.C., and Tiglath-pileser never had to return to this area. However, when he died in 727 and was followed by Shalmaneser V, some vassals rebelled as usual, and it is possible that Hosea of Israel did the same…This brought about the subjugation of the country. Most of the cities were 'probably overrun and destroyed quickly' during the early part of Shalmaneser's campaign (724 B.C.), and the king, Hosea, was taken prisoner. After a three year siege the capital of Samaria was finally taken (722 B.C.)… The nation Israel ceased to exist…" Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 669-670, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

720 - 716 BC

"Sargon II deported 27,290 Israelites, setting Babylonians, Aramaens, Cutheans and others in Samaria around 720 B.C. In 716 he also settled some Arabs there. Other settlers were moved in by Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. Nevertheless, the majority of the people of Samerina were still Israelites; the whole population had not been deported." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 899-900, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

late 7th CenturyBC

"The end of the seventh century B.C. saw the rapid fading away of the Assyrian power structure and the attempts of the Egyptians to fill the vacuum." Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 100, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

"In 609 B.C. Pharaoh Necho tried to march through Palestine, to help the survivors of the Assyrian empire to defend themselves, in their last stronghold on the Euphrates, against the newly rising empire of Babylon under Nabopolassar. Necho hoped to prevent the emergence of a Babylonian power in Mesopotamia and at the same time to achieve suzerainty over Syria and Palestine... All that lay west of the Euphrates was now ruled by Egypt." Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)" The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 101, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

605 BC

"The picture quickly changed, however...Nebuchadrezzar, was given command over the Babylonian forces in the west. Necho and his forces were completely defeated at Carchemish, and those who managed to escape were pursued and killed in the territory of Hamath...

The battle at Carchemish, like the fall of Nineveh, changed the political picture of the Near East. A new imperial ruler had emerged: Babylonia." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 760, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"Nebrchadrezzar terminated the Egyptian supremacy over Palestine after the battle at Carchemish in 605 B.C.... In the following year Nebuchadrezzar, who in September of 605 had succeeded his father on the throne, marched with his army through Syria-Palestine (Hatti) down to the Philistine coast without any military opposition. It is easy to imagine the fear and shattered illusions of the petty rulers of Syria-Palestine in the aftermath of the battle at Carchemish. With the Egyptian army destroyed, they had no other choice than to accept Babylon's rule." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 781, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

597 - 586 BC

"Jehoiakim [King of Judah] was no match for Nebuchadnezzar, whose army entered Jerusalem in 597 and bound the rebel king with chains to carry him to Babylon. But he either died or was murdered and his body was cast off beyond the gates of Jerusalem... The son and successor Jehoiachin was no wiser than the father. He occupied the throne three months in 597, when Nebuchadnezzar appeared in person at the gates of his capital [Jerusalem]. After a brief siege the city surrendered... Jehoiachin's uncle Zedekiah was appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar.

The twenty-one-year-old Zedekiah (597-586 B.C.) remained professedly loyal to Nebuchadnezzar for a number of years, after which he yielded to the chronic temptation to the urge of his nationalist leaders and as usual counted on Egyptian aid. Exasperated, Nebuchadnezzar dispatched an army intent upon the destruction of Jerusalem, which was put under siege." Philip K. Hitti, The History of Syria, p. 201-202, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951

586 BC

"In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, in the course of a series of wars of conquest, captured Jerusalem, destroyed the kingdom of Judah and the Jewish Temple, and, in accordance with the custom of the time, sent the conquered people into captivity in Babylonia." Bernard Lewis, The Middle East, p. 27, Scribner, 1995

"With the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, the kingdom of Judah went out of existence. The land was devastated, and several of the leading classes of the population were killed either in the war or after the capture of Jerusalem." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 798, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

586 - 539 BC

"The greater Palestinian area during the period of 582-539 B.C. is poorly documented. Babylonian inscriptions do not provide much insight. The Palestinian material is either fragmentary, such as that provided by archaeological remains, or it presents a religio-politically tendentious picture, such as that contained in the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah and 2 Chron. 36.17-23...The history of this country in the period after Nebuchadrezzar's campaigns and until the Persian takeover comprises a dark age." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 804, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

539 - 538 BC

"The end of that rule [Babylonian] came in 538 B.C., when a new people farther east, the Persians, rose under Cyrus and attacked their neighbor Babylon...The blow fell on Babylon in 539 B.C. but the citadel and royal palace held out until March 538. Thereupon the whole Babylonian empire, including Syria-Palestine, acknowledged the new Persian rule." Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 217-218, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951

"When Cyrus had taken Babylon he declared himself its new king. He proclaimed himself the protector of the peoples of the kingdom and announced freedom for the prisoners. After this he gave an order that the gods that had been taken to Babylon as prisoner or those Babylonian gods that Nabuna'id had taken there should be returned to their home cities. Their temples should be restored. Together with the gods, their people were also allowed to return to their countries." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 815, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"The administrative organization of the empire into satrapies (provinces) started under Cyrus…What is of interest here is the fifth satrapy, Babylonia-Abr Nahara. Palestine was part of this satrapy, which included Mesopotamia and the Babylonian holdings west of the Euphrates. Cyprus was also included in this satrapy…The Persian king often appointed as satraps a member of the country's royal family or some high official well acquainted with the administration and laws of the former nation. The king could also appoint a special commissioner or 'sub-governor' for a certain district, something that happened for Judah. Zerubbabel is an example, and so are Ezra and Nehemiah." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 821, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

538 - 515 BC

"The leader of the restored Jews was Zerubbabel, a descendant of King Jehoiachin. Zerubbabel brought back the Temple treasures looted by Nebuchadnezzar and became for a time the recognized governor of the restored community. After many difficulties the rebuilding of the Temple was completed about 515 B.C. under [Persian King] Darius." Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 222, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951

515 BC

"There is really no firm piece of information about conditions in Jerusalem and the life of the returnees after c. 515 B.C… This period is virtually unknown, not only in Jerusalem but also in Palestine in general." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 851-852, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

400 BC

"Increased Arab presence, especially in the southern parts of the country, can be discerned in Palestine in the later Persian period. It should be remembered that Arabs in Palestine were nothing new... Nevertheless, the great influx of Arabs into Transjordan and southern Palestine belongs rather to the so-called Hellenistic period. When the Persian Empire collapsed, the Nabateans of Transjordan and other Arab tribes had the opportunity to expand, and the Nabateans did so, replacing the Edomites." Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 904, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

336 BC

"The remaining years of the Persian Empire were marked by a series of court intrigues and the murders of two puppet kings followed by that of the murderer, leaving Darius III on the throne in 336, the same year that his eventual conqueror, Alexander, came to the throne of Macedonia." Andrew Duncan, War in the Holy Land, p. 25, Sutton Publishing Limited, 1998

"In the spring of 334 B.C. a twenty-one-year-old Macedonian, at the head of some 30,000 foot and 5000 horse...routed the Persian satrap near the mouth of the Granicus River...setting off a chain reaction destined to change the course of Near Eastern history. Western Asia and Egypt were ushered into the European sphere of political and cultural influence -- Macedonian, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine -- and there remained until the rise of Islam a thousand years later." Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History p.113, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

"The decisive battle was at Issus (333 B.C.), whereafter the victorious Greeks occupied Damascus, the Persian headquarters west of the Euphrates. Alexander was, it is true, held up for several months by the obstinate resistance of Tyre, but the pause only gave local rulers an opportunity to pay homage to the conqueror. Among them were the Jewish High Priest, Juddua, and Sanballat, leader of the Samaritans. Alexander does not seem himself to have visited the inland cities, legends to the contrary notwithstanding. After the capitulation of Tyre, and after it had overcome the briefer resistance of Gaza, the Macedonian army advanced directly on Egypt. It returned the following spring on its way to Mesopotamia, where the Persians were finally vanquished. Within two, years, power had changed hands completely."Michael Avi-Yonah, "The Second Temple (332 B.C. - 70 A.D.)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 116-117, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

301 - 164 BC

"After Alexander's death, his generals divided -- and subsequently fought over -- his empire. In 301 B.C., Ptolemy I took direct control of the Jewish homeland but made no serious efforts to intervene in its religious affairs. Ptolemy's successors were in turn supplanted by the Seleucids [c.200 B.C.], and in 175 B.C. Antiochus IV seized power. He launched a campaign to crush Judaism, and in 167 B.C. he sacked the [Jewish] Temple. The violation of the Second Temple, which had been built about 520-515 B.C., provoked a successful Jewish rebellion under the generalship of Judas (Judah) Maccabaeus." Country Studies Handbook, Israel, Library of Congress Federal Research Division, Helen Chapin Metz, Editor, 1988

"In Judas of the priestly Hasmonaean family, the Jews found a hero-rebel who, with his brothers, succeeded in capturing Jerusalem and cleansing the temple. Judas was surnamed Maccabeus, which probably means 'the hammerer,' in allusion to the telling blows he inflicted on the Syrian army. In 164 the Jewish community attained religious freedom and in 140 political independence. Under the Maccabean dynasty of priest-kings, the realm expanded and lasted until the advent of the Romans about eighty years later." Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 121, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

130 - 76 BC

"Alexander Jannaeus (Jonathan)...in the course of his long reign (130-76 B.C.), he realized the almost complete unification of the Holy Land for the first time since King David, an achievement for which he had to battle practically without interruption. In a series of expeditions directed north-west, north-east, south-west and south-east, the Jewish State was extended to encompass the Carmel and its coast, the Jordan Valley up to the sources at Dan and Paneas, and nearly the whole of the Transjordan mountains, excepting Rabbath-ammon. In order to extinguish Nabataean economic competition, Jannaeus occupied the eastern banks of the Dead Sea, making it a domestic -- and very valuable -- lake of Judaea; he took Gaza and the lands as far as the River of Egypt (Wadi el-Arish)." Michael Avi-Yonah, "The Second Temple (332 B.C. - 70 A.D.)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 140, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

76 - 64 BC

"After the death of Jannaeus in 76 his widow Alexandra reigned until 67 when her two sons fought each other until the Romans under Pompey intervened." Andrew Duncan, War in the Holy Land, p. 35, Sutton Publishing Limited, 1998

"Under the reign of the Hasmoneans the Jewish state was largely composed of Jews. But in 63 B.C. when Pompey came to Jerusalem he began to reverse this process. He allowed the Jews to rule the south and Galilee, but non-Jews ruled the rest of the kingdom...Julius Caesar was Pompey's rival, and when Pompey was killed in 48 B.C. Caesar prepared new territorial arrangements. He left Antipater, an Idumean, as administrator of the Jewish state...But Caesar's new arrangements did not last for long. He was assassinated on the Ides of March 44 B.C...In Rome the Senate proclaimed Herod King of Judea."John Wilkinson, "Jerusalem Under Rome and Byzantium 63-637 A.D.," Jerusalem in History, p. 78, Olive Branch Press, 2000

37 BC -
70

"Herod was confirmed by the Roman Senate as king of Judah in 37 B.C. and reigned until his death in 4 B.C. Nominally independent, Judah was actually in bondage to Rome, and the land was formally annexed in 6 B.C. as part of the province of Syria Palestina. Rome did, however, grant the Jews religious autonomy and some judicial and legislative rights through the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin, which traces its origins to a council of elders established under Persian rule (333 B.C. to 165 B.C.) was the highest Jewish legal and religious body under Rome." Country Studies Handbook, Israel, Library of Congress Federal Research Division, Helen Chapin Metz, Editor, 1988

"Of all the multitudinous peoples who constituted the Roman world, the Jews were undoubtedly the most difficult for the Romans to govern. Herod repressed the outbreaks against his authority with bloody fury...After Herod the Judeans continued restive under Roman rule.

In A.D. 67 Vespasian, future emperor, moved against them from Syria at the head of 50,000 troops and dealt them telling blows. His son Titus carried on the operations against Jerusalem, which after a few month's siege was starved to surrender (A.D. 70). The Judean capital was razed and thousands of its inhabitants were slaughtered." Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 149-150 D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

70 - 135

"In 70 A.D., the Romans captured Jerusalem and destroyed the second Temple, which had been built [515 B.C.] by the exiles returning from Babylon. Even this did not end Jewish resistance. After the revolt of Bar-Kokhba in 135 A.D., the Romans...like the Babylonians before them, sent a large part of the Jewish population into captivity and exile...Even the historic nomenclature of the Jews was to be obliterated. Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina, and a temple to Jupiter built on the site of the destroyed Jewish Temple. The names Judea and Samaria were abolished, and the country renamed Palestine, after the long-forgotten Philistines." Bernard Lewis, The Middle East, p. 31, Scribner, 1995

2nd - 3rd Century

"The process of urbanization which had begun in the Hellenistic period went on under Herod and the Romans, until, by the end of the second century, practically the whole coastal region, and almost all of the central mountain ridge of the lands east of the Jordan, had been transformed into municipal areas. Only, Upper Galilee, the Golan, Bashan and Hauran, in which there was a preponderance of Jews, proved intractable and resistant to city culture." Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 175, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The Jews gave up their attempts to throw off the Roman yoke, while the Roman government acknowledged Judaism as a religio licita, its communities enjoying the right to certain exemptions (from military service, for example) and being allowed to exist as juridical entities, to own property, to have their own courts (disguised as tribunals of arbitration), to levy taxes and so on. But, despite these concessions, on two points there was no giving way: the Romans still declined to permit Jews to live in Jerusalem, although restrictions on visits were relaxed, and proselytizing was frowned upon. Within this loosely outlined nexus of official relations, normative Judaism could go on developing." Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 176, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

3rd Century

"The last century of Roman rule in Palestine was marked, as elsewhere in the Roman world, by a political and economic crisis which shook Roman society to its foundations...The crisis in that empire was settled by the energetic measures of Diocletian, a rough soldier who put an end to civil wars and reorganized the administration...Diocletian was the last emperor to see in Christianity an enemy of Rome."Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 178 - 179, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"Emperor Constantine (ca. 280-337) shifted his capital from Rome to Constantinople in 330 and made Christianity the official religion. With Constantine's conversion to Christianity, a new era of prosperity came to Palestine, which attracted a flood of pilgrims from all over the empire." Country Studies Handbook, Israel, Library of Congress Federal Research Division, Helen Chapin Metz, Editor, 1988

"Constantine's policy was the same as Hadrian's towards the Jews. They were not allowed to live in Jerusalem, but they made pilgrimage to the western wall of the Temple, and once a year on 'The ninth of Ab' they were allowed into the Temple site to lament its destruction."John Wilkinson, Jerusalem under Rome and Byzantium, Jerusalem in History, p. 94-95, Olive Branch Press, 2000

"Politically, the country was affected by the trend, which began with Diocletian, towards splitting up the provinces. In his time, the whole southern part of the old Provincia Palaestina was joined to southern Transjordan to form a separate province. In the beginning of the fifth century, the remaining province was split up that there were thenceforth Palaestina Prima, Secunda and Tertia. The fist included Judaea and Samaria, with a part of Transjordan, the second Galilee and the Golan and Bashan regions, while the whole of the Negev, Sinai and Nabataea now became Palestinia Tertia. This civil division, to which, as elsewhere in the Roman empire, the ecclesiastical organization was made to correspond, lasted till the end of Byzantine rule and even beyond. " Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 180, 182, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The adoption of Christianity as the dominant religion of the empire changed the status of Palestine radically. no longer just a tiny province, it became the Holy Land, on which emperors and believers lavished untold wealth; the former claimants to it, the Jews, were powerless to establish their right and were quickly relegated to second-class citizenship.

The principal aim of Byzantium was to make Jerusalem Christian. Pilgrimages were encouraged by the provision of hospices and infirmaries, churches rose on every spot connected in one way or another with Christian traditions. The building activity that ensued was one of the causes of the country's urprising prosperity at that time, which is evident from archaeological surveys. There were three to five times as many inhabited places in the fifth-sixth centuries A.D. as in any of the preceding periods." Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 179-180, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

610

"In 610, Heraclius was crowned emperor... Many world-shaking events took place during his reign: the Persian victories, which also led to their temporary conquest of Palestine, changes within the empire, and the Muslim conquests, which deprived Byzantium of much of its Mediterranean lands." Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 5, Cambridge University Press, 1992

"The Persian offensive had already begun in 611, and in the course of seven or eight years the Persians conquered Antioch, the major city of the Byzantine East, Damascus and all of Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor and also Egypt." Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 5, Cambridge University Press, 1992

"Heraclius, who had been defending himself desperately in Constantinople against a simultaneous assault by Avars and Persians, embarded upon a daring strategy of attack. In 622 he left his capital and invaded the Armenian mountains; in 628, after six years of brilliant campaigning, he stood before the gates of Ctesiphon. The incursion, and the quarrels of successor after the death of Chosroes II, forced the Persians to sue for peace. They abandoned all their conquests, including Palestine...On 21 March 629, Heraclius entered the Holy City in triumph...It was the last great day of Byzantine Palestine.

Assault soon came from a different quarter. The Arab tribes, converted by Muhammad to his new creed of Islam, attacked Aila (Elath) in the lifetime of the Prophet. The early Caliphs renewed the onslaught, and the battles of Thedun, Ajnadain (both 634) and Yarmuk (636) were decisive. Jerusalem fell in 638 A.D., and within two years Byzantine overlordship in the Holy Land was at an end." Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 193, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"On a hot day of August 636, the two opposing armies faced each other on the banks of the Yarmuk, a Jordan tributary. The Arabians, 25,000 strong, were commanded by Khalid; the Byzantine army, twice as numerous and composed mosly Armenian and other mercenaries, was led by a brother of Empereor Heraclius. The day was an excessively hot one clouded by wind-blown dust and presumably purposely chosen for the encounter by the Arabian generalship. The Byzantine fighters were cleverly maneuvered into a position where the dust storm struck them in the face. Only a few managed to escape with their lives. The fate of Syria, on the fairest of the Eastern Roman provinces, was decided. 'Farewell, O Syria,' were Heraclius' parting words, 'and what an excellent country this is for the enemy!'" Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 209, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

644

"By the end of the reign of the second caliph, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-44), the whole of Arabia, part of the Sasanian Empire, and the Syrian [including Palestine] and Egyptian provinces of the Byzantine Empire had been conquered; the rest of the Sasanian lands were occupied soon afterwards." Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 22-23, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"After completing the occupation of Syria and Palestine the Arabs turned to organizing the administration of the newly occupied territories. As they were exclusively fighters and did not have any administrators capable of fitting themselves into the well-developed bureaucracy that the Byzantines had left behind them, they decided to leave the existing system of administration to carry on its work as in the past, with the same local functionaries...

Most of Palestine, up to the border of the valley of jezreel and Beth-shean, belonged to one district known as 'Jund Filatine' which was, in fact, the Palaestina Prima of the BGyzantine era together with part of Palaestina Tertia. Galilee, the southern part o the Lebanon and parts of the Golan fell within Jund Urdunn, which constituted the Palaestina Secunda of the Byzantines." Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 207, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

644 - 661

"The people of Madina saw power being drawn northwards towards the richer and more populous lands of Syria and Iraq, where governors tried to make their power more independent. Such tensions came to the surface in the reign of the third caliph, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan (644-56)...A movement of unrest in Madina, supported by soldiers from Egypt, led to 'Uthman's murder in 656. This opened the first period of civil war in the community. The claimant to the succession, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (656-661) was...a cousin of Muhammad and married to his daughter Fatima. 'Ali's alliance grew weaker, and finally he was assassinated in his own city of Kufa. Mu'awiya [the first Umayyad] proclaimed himself caliph and 'Ali's elder son, Hasan, acquiesced in it." Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 24-25, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"The coming to power by Mu'awiya (661-80) has always been regarded as marking the end of one phase and the beginning of another. The first four caliphs, from Abu Bakr to 'Ali, are known to the majority of Muslims as the Rashidun or 'Rightly Guided'. Later caliphs were seen in a rather different light. From now on the position was virtually hereditary. Although some idea of choice, or at least formal recognition, by the leaders of the community remained, in fact from this time power was in the hands of a family, known from an ancestor, Umayya, as that of the Umayyads…

The change was more than one of rulers. The capital of the empire moved to Damascus, a city lying in a countryside abler to provide the surplus needed to maintain a court, government and army, and in a region from which the eastern Mediterranean coastlands and the land to the east of them could be controlled more easily than from Madina." Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 25-26, Warner Books Edition, 1991

690s

"In the 690s there was erected the first great building which clearly asserted that Islam was distinct and would endure. This was the Dome of the Rock, built on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, now turned into a Muslim haram; it was to be an ambulatory for pilgrims around the rock where, according to Rabbinic tradition, God had called upon Abraham to sacrifice Isaac." Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 28, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"Throughout the Umayyad period Palestine played no sinificant political role. Its population was partly composed of Jews and Christians, whose families had always lived there and towards whom the caliphs adopted a tolerant and lenient attitude. It is true that special taxes were imposed upon both Jews and Christians, but they were moderately light at the beginning. The government recognized the religious communities as socio-political entities and the rabbis and priests were responsible to the authorities for the members of their communities." Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 222, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"Not least amongst the various causes which contributed to the downfall of the Umayyads was the fundamental split within islam, which produced the two dominant sects known as the Sunna (Orthodox) and the Shi'a. The Shiites, who maintained that the Prophet's cousin 'Ali and his descendants were the only legitimate candidates for the caliphate, rose many times in rebellion against Umayyad rule. Although these revolts proved to be abortive in themselves, they did help to undermine the strength of the empire from within." Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 223, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

700 - 749

"During the first decades of the eighth century, Umayyad rulers made a series of attempts to deal with movements of opposition...Then in the 740s their power suddenly collapsed in the face of yet another civil war and a coalition of movements with different aims but united by a common opposition to them... The Umayyads were defeated in a number of battles in 749-750, and the last caliph of the house, Marwan II, was pursued to Egypt and killed. In the meantime, the unnamed leader was proclaimed in Kufa; he was Abu'l-Abbas, a descendant not of 'Ali but of 'Abbas." Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 31-32, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"Syria was replaced as center of the Muslim caliphate by Iraq. The power of Abu'l-'Abbas (749-54) and his successors, known from their ancestor as 'Abbasids, lay less in the eastern Mediterranean countries, or in Hijaz which was an extension of them, than in the former Sasanian territories: southern Iraq and the oases and plateaux of Iran, Khurasan and the land stretching beyond it into central Asia." Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 32, Warner Books Edition, 1991

749 - 833

"With the transfer of the political centre to Iraq they [the Abbasids] succeeded in completing the slower, but major, process of shifting the international trade routes connecting the Middle East and the Far East from Syria to the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Almost overnight Palestine became a marginal land and began to deteriorate." Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 224, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

833 - 877

"The first sign of internal decay in the Abbasid regime was the rise of the Turkish bodyguard under the immediate successors of al-Ma'mun (d. 833)...Except for short intervals thereafter the Abbasid power was steadily on the decline...As it was disintegrating petty dynasties, mostly of Arab origin, were parcelling out its domains in the west...First among those with which Syria [including Palestine] was concerned was the Tulunid dynasty." Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 557, Macmillan & Co. LTD. 1951

"In 868 an officer called Ahmad ibn-Tulun, the son of a freed Turkish slave, was sent to Egypt to serve as lieutenant to the governor of the province. A year later he himself became the governor of the province, declared its independence [from the Abbasids] and put a stop to the remittance of annual taxes to the Baghdad treasury. In 877, exploiting the deaths of the governors of Syria and Palestine, he was able, without difficulty, to extend his authority over these provinces as well...

With the rule of ibn-Tulun a period of renewed political, social and cultural activity began in Palestine, after the long period of neglect that marked the hundred years of direct Abbasid rule..." Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 226, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

884 - 906

When ibn-Tulun died in 884 his son Khumawayh seized the reins of power. The Abbasid caliph made an attempt to regain control over Syria and Palestine, and despatched a strong expeditionary force from Iraq, which invaded Palestine in 892. Khumawayh, who was an able statesman as well as a very talented general, scored a decisive victory over this army in a battle near Abu Futrus. After this battle the Abbasids abandoned for a time their attempts to take Palestine from the Tulunids. However within a few years of the death of Khumawayh [904] they had managed to regain it with ease." Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 226-227, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"For the following thirty years (906-935) Palestine remained under Abbasid rule. We have very little information as to what occurred there during that generation." Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 315, Cambridge University Press, 1992

"In the year 935 a new independent dynasty was founded in Egypt by Muhammad ibn-Tughj (935-946 A.D.), a Turk who had been granted the ancient Persian princely title Ikhshid by the Abbasid caliph in 939. The new dynasty took its name from this title. Following in the footsteps of the Tulunids, Muhammad the Ikhshid made himself independent in Egypt and within a short time controlled not only Syria and Palestine but even Mecca and Medina, the two holy cities of Islam." Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 227, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The Ikhshidid dynasty (935-969), like its predecessor the Tulunid (868-905), had an ephemeral existence. They followed the same pattern of behavior, the pattern that typifies the case of many other states which, in this period of disintegration, broke off from the imperial government. Both made lavish use of state moneys to curry favor with their subjects and thereby ruined the treasuries." Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 564, Macmillan & Co. LTD. 1951

969

"A series of preparatory incursions into Egypt, which had gravely deteriorated under the rule of the Ikhshids, paved the way for a decisive attack, led by the Fatimid general Jawhar, in 969. Egypt was conquered easily and the Fatimid forces, sustaining the momentum of the attack, went on to take Syria and Palestine." Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 231, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"At the beginning of summer of 970, the Fatimid army under Ja'far ibn al-Fallah, turned towards Palestine... Theoreticaly, this was the outset of about a century of Fatimid rule in Palestine. In fact, the Fatimids were compelled to join battle with not a few of the enemies who stood in their way: the Arabs, led by the Banu Tayy', who in turn were headed by the Banu'l-Jarrah family; the Qarmatis; a Turkish army under the command of Alptakin, who was based in Damascus; Arab tribes in Syria with the Banu Hamdan at their head; and in the background, the Byzantines were lurking, and about to continue their attempts to spearhead southward to Jerusalem. This war was waged in several stages and the enemies changed, but all in all, it was an almost unceasing war which destroyed Palestine." Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 336, Cambridge University Press, 1992

1030 - 1079

"The year 1030 was the first year of peace in the country... Comparative calm and political and military stability existed in Palestine under Fatimid rule for only some forty years. The invasion of the Turkish tribes put an end to this near-stability at one blow." Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 397, 420, Cambridge University Press, 1992

"By 1079, the Seljuks wrested Syria and Palestine from local rulers and from the declining Fatimids."Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 89 Scribner paperback, 1995

"We have very little knowledge of what happened in Palestine during the period of Turcoman [Seljuk] rule... By and large, however, the Turcoman period, which lasted less than thirty years, was one of slaughter and vandalism, of economic hardship and the uprooting of populations."Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 414, 420, Cambridge University Press, 1992

1092 - 1996

"After the death of the third Great Sultan [of the Seljuk Empire] Malikshah, in 1092, civil war broke out between his sons, and the process of political fragmentation, which had been interrupted by the Seljuk conquest, was resumed... It was during this period of weakness and dissension that, in 1096, the Crusaders arrived in the Levant."Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 90 Scribner paperback, 1995

"In a speech delivered at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II gave a grim description of the plight of the Christians of the East under the Seljuk yoke. He called on the nobility of Europe to wrest the Holy Land, the Holy City and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, cradle of Christianity and its rightful and eternal heritage, from beleaguerment by usurping infidels who sullied them by their very presence, if not by their deeds. Those who answered the call would be fighting a bellum sacrum, a holy war." Emmanuel Sivan, "Palestine During the Crusades (1099-1291)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land p. 240, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

1098 - 1187

"For the first thirty years, the disunity of the Muslim world made things easy for the invaders, who advanced speedily down the coast of Syria into Palestine, and established a chain of Latin feudal principalities, based on Antioch [1098-1268], Edessa [1098-1146], Tripoli [1102-1146] and Jerusalem [1099-1187]. But even in this first period of success the Crusaders were limited in the main to the coastal plains and slopes, facing the Mediterranean and the Western world.

In the interior, looking eastwards to the desert and Iraq, the reaction was preparing. The Seljuk princes who held Aleppo and Damascus were unable to accomplish very much. In 1127, Zangi, a Turkish officer in the Seljuk service, seized Mosul, and in the following years gradually built up a powerful Muslim state in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. His son, Nur al-Din, took Damascus in 1154, creating a sigle Muslim power in Syria and confronting the Crusaders for the first time with a really formidable adversary. The issue before the two sides was now the control of Egypt, where the Fatimid caliphate was tottering towards final collapse." Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 90-91 Scribner paperback, 1995

"In Egypt, the Fatimids continued to rule until 1171, but were then replaced by Salah al-Din (Saladin) a military leader of Kurdish origin. The change of rulers brought with it a change of religious alliance. The Fatimids had belonged to the Isma'ili branch of the Shi'is, but Salah al-Din was a Sunni, and he was able to mobilize the strength and religious fervor of Egyptian and Strian Muslims in order to defeat the European Crusaders who had established Christian states in Palestine and on the Syrian coast at the end of the eleventh century. The dynasty founded by Salah al-Din, that of the Ayyubids, ruled Egypt from 1169 to 1252, Syria to 1260, and part of western Arabia to 1229." Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 84 Warner Books Edition, 1991

"A Kurdish officer called Salah al-Din -- better known in the West as Saladin -- launched a jihad against the Crusaders in 1187. By his death in 1193, he had recaptured Jerusalem and expelled the Crusaders from all but a narrow coastal strip. It was only the break-up of Saladin's Syro-Egyptian empire into a host of small states under his successors which permitted the Crusading states to drag out an attenuated existence for another century, until the reconstitution of a Syro-Egyptian state under the Mamluks in the thirteenth century brought about their final extinction."Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 91 Scribner paperback, 1995

"In the middle of the thirteenth century the power of the Turkish Mamluks in Cairo was supreme and a new regime emerged, the Mamluk Sultanate, which ruled Egypt and Syria until 1517. In 1260, after a period of confusion following the death of the last Ayyubid, a Qipchaq Turk called Baybars became Sultan. His career in many ways forms an interesting parallel with that of Saladin. He united Muslim Syria/Palestine and Egypt into a single state, this time more permanently. He defeated the external enemies of that state, repulsing Mongol invaders from the east and crushing all but the last remnants of the Crusaders in Syria." Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 169-170 Oxford University Press, 1993

"Palestine was divided mainly between two of the six provinces of Syria, the province of Damascus and that of Safed. Mameluk officers, appointed as governors, were independent of each other and directly responsible to the sultan, in Cairo... No details exist of the size and composition of Palestine's population under the mameluks." Moshe Sharon, "Palestine under the Mameluks and the Ottoman Empire (1291-1918)," The History of Israel and the Holy Land p. 278, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

15th Century

"In the 15th century, instability plagued Mamluk rule: internal corruption, the continued Mongol threat, Bedouin incusions, and bad economic policies all combined to deliver a blow to the Mamluk economy and military, from which they were not able to recover." Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 172 Oxford University Press, 1993

1516 - 1517

"In a short, sharp war in 1516-1517, the Ottomans overthrew the tottering Mamluk sultanate which had dominated Egypt, Syria, and western Arabia for two and a half centuries and brought these lands under their rule." Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 114 Scribner paperback, 1995

"In 1517 the Ottomans won their final victory over the Mamluks, and for four hundred years Syria and Egypt formed part of the Ottoman Empire. Soon the Barbary States [Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli] as far as the frontiers of Morocco accepted Ottoman suzerainty [overlord-ship], and with the Ottoman conquest of Iraq from Iran in 1534, almost the whole Arabic-speaking world was under Ottoman rule." Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 167 Oxford University Press, 1993

"Soon after the conquest, the Ottomans joined Palestine to the province of Syria, whose capital was Damascus. Palestine itself was divided into five districts, or Sanjaks, each named after its capital; the Sanjak of Gaza, which was the southernmost one, and to the north of it the Sanjaks of Jerusalem, Nablus, Lajjun, and Safed. A Turkish officer was placed at the head of each Sanjak, with the title of Sanjak Bey or Sanjak Beg. The Sanjak Beg of Gaza was the highest-ranking governor in Palestine...All the five Sanjak Begs of Palestine were subordinate to the Beilerbeg, the 'Beg of Begs', of Damascus." Moshe Sharon, "Palestine under the mameluks and the Ottoman Empire (1291-1918)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 283,286, Contunuum Publishing Group, 2001

16th - 19th Century

"The Ottoman historians date the decline of the Empire from the death of Suleyman the Magnificent, and it is indeed in the second half of the sixteenth century that the first signs of breakdown in the Ottoman institutional structure begin to appear." Bernard Lewis, The Middle East, p. 122, Scribner paperback edition, 2003

"In the last third of the 16th century serious cracks began to appear in the structure of the Ottoman empire. The empire embarked on a retrogressive movement which was to continue for more than two centuries. The decline gained momentum towards the end of the 17th century, and deepened in the 18th and 19th centuries. The feudal system, with the sipahis -- the feudal landlords -- as its prop was gradually detiorating. As the wars of expansion came to an end and spoils diminished, the landlords turned with increasing interest to the land, and tried to recoup the loss of spoils by merciless exploitation of the peasants. This naturally led to a sharp drop in agricultural production and ushered in the whole crisis of the empire." K.J. Asali, "Jerusalem under the Ottomans"Jerusalem in History, p. 207-208, Olive Branch Press, 2000

1831

"The famous Muhammad 'Ali Psha, governor of Egypt from 1805 to 1848, conducted a diplomatic and even military struggle against the Ottoman sultan, and was prevented only by the intervention of the European powers from utterly defeating him. He was, however, able to make Egypt an autonomous and hereditary principality, and to launch it on the way to modernization." Bernard Lewis, The Middle East, p. 308, Scribner paperback edition, 2003

"Muhammad Ali and [his son] Ibrahim Pasha tried to win the support of the European powers for their control of Syria by a calculated policy of granting equality of status to members of religious minorities and by opening the country to European missionary and consular activities. This policy unleashed forces which were quickly to be felt in Jerusalem, as the Ottomans, upon their return to the city, could not reverse the Egyptian measures. Whereas before the Egyptian occupation, European consuls and Christian missions could not establish themselves in Jerusalem, and European pilgrims and visitors were not allowed to settle there permanently, the Ottomans had to continue the Egyptian open-door policy." Alexander Scholch, "Jerusaelm in the 19th Century," Jerusalem in History, p. 229, Olive Branch Press, 2000

"The Jewish population of Jerusalem increased from around 5,000 in 1839 to about 10,000 by the late 1850s."Ian J. Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict p. 21, fourth edition, Prentice Hall, 2002

1876 - 1909

"Under Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, who ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1876-1909, important changes took place in Palestine. Abdul-Hamid encouraged modernization in communications, education, and the military in order to strengthen his control. When he began his rule, Palestine had no railroad, hardly any carriage roads, and no developed port. There were few medical services, and disease and illiteracy were widespread. Within a few years of Abdul-Hamid's accession, new roads were opened, and European companies completed a railroad between Jerusalem and Jaffa in 1892 and another between Haifa and Deraa, Transjordan, in 1905. In reorganizing the Ottoman Empire and attempting to strengthen central control by using European engineers and investors, the sultans, paradoxically, encouraged the very European penetration of Palestine they were seeking to prevent." Ian J. Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict p. 19, fourth edition, Prentice Hall, 2002

1882

"The first small group of the new movement, known as Chibbat -- or Chovenei-Zion (Lovers of Zion) -- numbering fourteen and including one woman, landed at Jaffa on July 7, 1882." Ian J. Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict p. 26, fourth edition, Prentice Hall, 2002

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